Posted 6 years ago
Toyrebel
(215 items)
Finished restoring another Hubley 500 series cab/trailer set. This was the second in the series, #501 and was first cataloged in 1950 with this style '48 GMC cabover. It's 18" long and originally came with 4 plastic '48 Packard sedans. The cars are kind of hard to come by loose and usually more than I want to pay. I loaded it with Welly(China) diecast '53 Ford Crestline Skyliners on top and a '53 Chevy Belair underneath. They're a little small for the transporter wheel wells but close enough. I got 'em from Dollar General for $5 a car. I bought the local DG out, so I'll have to pick up another one elsewhere. I see some originals on Ebay and might be able to get a full load eventually at a decent price in the future. I've made a little more progress on the restoration backlog.
Thanks,
Bill
Looks great with those cars. Will be interesting to see it with a full load of originals.
Thanks everyone. I'll find some reasonable enough one of these days 'Apache. I paid less for these three than what they want for one on Ebay.
Very realistic transport repro
Thanks Newfld. I mainly collect Hubleys, but I've always loved any maker's auto hauler since I was a kid.
Nicely Done :)
Thanks Buckethead.
Awesome looking!
Thanks 'Cape.
Beautiful restoration! If I may ask, how did you restore the tread on the rubber wheels?
Thank you Jwass. I just try to clean and rejuvenate the old rubber when I restore mainly. I've found the old Hubley rubber to be durable. I use diluted dishwashing detergent and a stiff artist's brush to clean the surface, clean reasonably gentle enough to where you don't rough the tire surface. Rinse and repeat the above until you don't get the ground up surface rubber washing off in the rinse. I let them dry and then soak each side of the tire in regular Armor All for a while. These old tires are usually dry and thirsty and will soak up the moisture. Just wipe the Armor All off and 90% of the time they'll look like new. I remove a tire from the axle to remove the axle, before you replace the axle, look at the sides of your tires, you may want to reverse the tires so the less worn inner tire surfaces are now facing outward. Most Hubley tires can be restored/refurbished if you take your time and don't rough up the surface.
Thank you, Toyrebel! A very detailed and helpful answer. I'm just getting into this hobby and really appreciate your insights.
Toyrebel,
I did have one follow-up query. When you mentioned that you remove the axle, how did you go about doing so? Are these axles the kind that have two ends that slip over a long middle piece? Thank you!